The Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Memorial is a museum and exhibition centre dedicated to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel

Vallabhbhai Jhaverbhai Patel was an Indian barrister and statesman, one of the leaders of the Indian National Congress and one of the founding fathers of India...

, an Indian independence activist and political leader, at the Moti Shahi Mahal, located in Shahibaug, Ahmedabad

Ahmedabad

Ahmedabad also known as Karnavati is the largest city in Gujarat, India. It is the former capital of Gujarat and is also the judicial capital of Gujarat as the Gujarat High Court has its seat in Ahmedabad...

, Gujarat. The Moti Shahi Mahal is surrounded by the Sardar Open Garden, where peacocks roam free and monkeys reside in the trees. The Sardar Open Air Theatre shows documentary films in the garden on occasion. Before the palace stands a statue of Patel. Four pillars mark the four wings, one floor and central hall of the palace.

History

The Moti Shahi Mahal was constructed in the city of Ahmedabad by Mughal emperor Shahjahan between 1618 and 1622 when he was the suba, or governor, of Gujarat, which was a part of the Mughal Empire

Mughal Empire

The Mughal Empire ,‎ or Mogul Empire in traditional English usage, was an imperial power from the Indian Subcontinent. The Mughal emperors were descendants of the Timurids...

. The palace later passed to the control of the British Raj

British Raj

British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...

 when Ahmedabad was established as a cantonment in the mid-nineteenth century, and used for government purposes. Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore , sobriquet Gurudev, was a Bengali polymath who reshaped his region's literature and music. Author of Gitanjali and its "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse", he became the first non-European Nobel laureate by earning the 1913 Prize in Literature...

, the great Bengali

Bengali people

The Bengali people are an ethnic community native to the historic region of Bengal in South Asia. They speak Bengali , which is an Indo-Aryan language of the eastern Indian subcontinent, evolved from the Magadhi Prakrit and Sanskrit languages. In their native language, they are referred to as বাঙালী...

 poet, writer and philosopher stayed in the palace in 1878, when he was seventeen years old. Following Indian independence, this palace was the Raj Bhavan - official residence of the Governor of Gujarat, from 1960 to 1978. It was endowed by the Government of Gujarat in 1975, upon the centennial birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, to establish a memorial to honour him. The memorial was founded on March 7, 1980.

Patel memorial

Shri Vallabhbhai Patel born in the 31st October,1875, His birth of place was Nadiad

Nadiad

Nadiad is a city and an administrative center of the Kheda district in the Indian state of Gujarat.The city is famous for its socio-educational-religious humanitarian services led by Santram Mandir and supported by institutions of higher learning such as Dharamsinh Desai University, Muljibhai...

, Gujrat, British India and he died in Bombay on dated15 December 1950 in the age of 75years.
The Patel memorial is located on the ground floor, covering the central hall and four adjacent rooms. The central hall is filled with portraits of Patel, his family, friends and colleagues in the Indian freedom struggle. They are in chronological order and with biographical descriptions of periods of his life, and quotes by his colleagues and admirers. Two of the four adjacent rooms house relics of Patel's life, his personal possessions as well as displayed accounts and political cartoons from newspapers of the time. One room is devoted to a particular phase of Patel's work - his comradeship with Mohandas Gandhi in the 1930s, his youth, education and legal career, and his work as India's home minister in integrating princely states into India. In a room to the right of the main entrance into the palace, is where Patel's personal effects are on display. These include his khadi

Khadi

The term khādī or khaddar means cotton. khādī is Indian handspun and hand-woven cloth. The raw materials may be cotton, silk, or wool, which are spun into threads on a spinning wheel called a charkha. It is a versatile fabric, cool in the summer and warm in the winter...

 kurta

Kurta

A kurta is a traditional item of clothing worn in Afghanistan, Pakistan , Nepal, India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. It is a loose shirt falling either just above or somewhere below the knees of the wearer, and is worn by both men and women...

, jacket and dhoti

Dhoti

The dhoti or pancha is the traditional men's garment in the in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. A similar garment is worn in some rural areas of Punjab province in Pakistan, but the use is fast declining...

, his shoes, slippers and European-style clothes from his younger days. Also on display is a flag of India as created by the Indian National Congress

Indian National Congress

The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...

 in 1930-31.

Sardar Sarovar and Gandhi room

A major room and sub-hall on the ground floor is devoted to the controversial Sardar Sarovar Project - a major dam and hydroelectric power plants project launched in Patel's name in the Narmada

Narmada River

The Narmada , also called Rewa is a river in central India and the fifth largest river in the Indian subcontinent. It is the third largest river that completely flows within India after Ganges and Godavari...

 river valley, covering the states of Gujarat, Maharashtra

Maharashtra

Maharashtra is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India...

 and Madhya Pradesh

Madhya Pradesh

Madhya Pradesh , often called the Heart of India, is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and Indore is the largest city....

. The room contains pictures, graphics, books, statistics and other information on the project - from its inception, technical details, construction and present functioning.

In a room connected through the Sardar Sarovar hall, the life and work of Mohandas Gandhi are on display. These include portraits, pictures, quotes, busts, statues and books. Gandhi's close partnership and personal friendship with Patel is an important and recurrent theme throughout the memorial.

Tagore memorial

On the first floor in the right wing of the palace, is the room where Rabindranath Tagore lived during his time at the palace, and it is dedicated to his memory. It is accessed by a staircase and a pathway into the right column. There are numerous portraits, pictures and information on display, and the main room consists of a large statue of Tagore, including paintings to preserve his memory and contributions.

External links

• Sardar trust news